Written by Jacqueline Cody, Assistant Head of School and INTL Parent
Our shared goal as parents and educators is to raise children who are kind, capable, and resilient. And to do that, we each play a vital role.
As both an educator and a parent, I’m continually reminded of the power of the village. At Silicon Valley International School (INTL), we’re lucky to be part of a pretty special village: an international community of parents and educators with rich and varied pedagogical, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds. With these diverse experiences comes diverse ideas and perspectives and the opportunity to continually learn and grow together in ways that strengthen our students’ learning.
This year, some of my highlights have been the ones that reflect that partnership in action. These include: parents filling the room for an INTL ParentEd event with Sheri Glucoft Wong, sitting together with faculty for INTL’s book club reading Raising Kids, leaning into conversations about conflict and resilience across all our grades, and families engaging in thoughtful dialogue about college readiness and assessment in the Upper School. These conversations make it clear that we’re not on opposite sides of the table. We are in fact, all members of the same village.
Sheri captured it so beautifully when she shared that, “the moments that shape children aren’t the big planned conversations. They’re the ordinary ones, when something hard happens and they learn they can get through it with us by their side.”
Our recent Early Years session on conflict was a perfect example of how powerful this can be.
There, together, we discussed playground squabbles, peer conflict, the power of restorative conversations, and how our responses support children through these moments while building their confidence in themselves. When parents and teachers use a shared language around these everyday struggles, children feel supported, understood, and confident in both spaces.
For parents, we invite you to lean into this partnership, to see teachers as an illuminating window into the inner world of who your child is at school: as a learner, as a friend, as a member of a learning community. Often parents wonder how best to garner this insight. Below are some questions that may help:
-
When is my child most curious or engaged during the day?
-
What kinds of challenges stretch them in healthy ways?
-
What does friendship look like for them right now?
-
When something doesn’t go the way they hoped (like a group project or a tough test), how do they tend to respond, and what kind of support seems to help them find their footing again?
Thank you for your partnership, for the shared trust and open conversation. When home and school speak the same language, children feel held by a community that knows them deeply. And in that space of belonging, resilience doesn’t need to be taught, it’s lived.
